Purpose: Body dissatisfaction in transgender youth (TY) may increase the risk for eating disorders. This is the first study using the Eating Disorders Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) to assess for eating disorder psychopathology in TY.
Methods: Youth aged 13-22 years (n = 106) presenting to a gender clinic from January 2018 to January 2019 completed the EDE-Q and answered questions on weight manipulation for gender-affirming purposes.
Results: Respondents identified as transmasculine (61%), transfeminine (28%), or nonbinary (11%). Mean age was 16.5 years (standard deviation = 2.0), mean weight was 119.9% median body mass index (standard deviation = 32.9), and 32% were on hormonal therapy. Of the participants, 15% had elevated EDE-Q scores. Most (63%) disclosed weight manipulation for gender-affirming purposes, with 11% of assigned females doing so for menstrual suppression. These behaviors had poor concordance with elevated EDE-Q scores (κ = .137 and .148).
Conclusions: Disordered eating behaviors are relatively common among TY. Further studies are needed to validate the EDE-Q in TY and establish meaningful cutoff score values.
Keywords: Disordered eating; Eating disorders; Transgender.
Copyright © 2019 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.